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Technological Objectives

The realization of a highly-efficient and cost-effective SniffPhone will be carried out at the sites of four industry partners: NanoVation, microfluidic ChipShop GmbH, Cellix Limited and JLM Innovation GmbHIt is aided by the technology-related expertise of SIEMENS, VTT Technical Research Center of Finnland and Technion in the field of medical diagnostics.

The industrial partners will take the SniffPhone prototype to a higher level of miniaturization and will refine and automate features such as data acquisition and data interpretation and software integration, making the add-on device simple-to-use during daily life activities.

To fulfill these objectives, the following technological objectives have been set, to be achieved chiefly within the tasks performed by the industrial partners:

Design and prototype a microfluidics flow cell that can be used as a host the MCNP and RN-SWCNT FET sensors array and as an exposure cell for breath samples, through the following steps:1) a microfluidic cover to serve as an interface between the environments and to direct the samples onto the sensors array2) a flow-cell package to interface the flow cell with the SniffPhone3) a customized holder to provide both electrical and fluidic connections by means of press-fit connections.

Design and construct a SniffPhone prototype integrating the MBC, the microfluidics with the sensors array, and the miniaturized microfluidic pump.The system will be equipped with a microcontroller for microfluidics control, data acquisition, and a software package.The structure of the software package will allow managing the output signals either by mobile-embedded algorithms and/or cloud computing services.Additionally, the software package will be developed in such a way that will allow the other consortium partners to efficiently embed and test their algorithms with the prototypes during both the laboratory and clinical phases.

Provide User Interface for easy and reliable usage of the SniffPhone. Measurement results have to be processed and displayed in an unambiguous way in order to avoid misinterpretation by the user.

Adapt an ethical approach to use the output results from the SniffPhoneThe question is whether the user is exposed directly to the result or the result is sent to the user's medical doctor, to reduce stress effects.Depending on the approach chosen, adequate measures to ensure data security and safety will be considered.

This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 644031.